Finance InternAt — Elbi of America

A part-time Finance intern to help with the following tasks: 

• Review the current SKU catalog & digitalize into a database:
• Items no longer active or sold
• SKUs replaced by new vendor or part number
• Duplicates or inconsistent naming conventions
• Cross-reference product data with vendor lists, sales history, and internal documentation.
• Create a tracking file summarizing findings and recommendations for SKU relevance.
• Coordinate with purchasing and sales teams to confirm product line changes.
• Support documentation and organization of product master data in Excel or ERP system.

Tasks:

The intern will demonstrate their learning outcomes by:
1. Financial Analysis and Modeling
a. Performing SKU-level financial analysis calculating gross margin, landed cost components, and their historical price variance
b. Building and updating spreadsheet based financial models that support pricing strategy, forecasting, and revenue optimization
c. Assisting in the preparation of weekly and monthly FP&A performance reports used by leadership
2. Data Structuring & business Analytics
a. Cleaning, organizing, and validating large datasets extracted by the ERP system and legacy catalog files
b. Constructing comprehensive Master Catalog Database by digitalizing item details, vendor information, cost, list price, and sales history
c. Developing categorized item activity reports (A/B/C analysis) and calculating consumption metrics using 24-month historical sales data.
d. Producing dashboards and summary reports that identify SKU trends relevance and anomalies.
3. Pricing & Cost Strategy Development
a. Calculating list prices using markup, gross margin, and competitive benchmarking methods
b. Conducting price alignment analysis to evaluate whether each SKUs falls within market-competitive thresholds
c. Assisting in evaluating discount structure tied to customer tiers and item discount groups
d. Preparing recommendations for product pricing adjustments based on cost changes market finding or customer sensitivity.
e. Performing substitution research to identify obsolete, discontinued duplicate SKUs and mapping them to updated equivalents
f. Documents product relevancy alternative vendors and reasons for SKU retirement or re-sourcing
g. Preparing catalog report summarizing findings for sales and operations.
4. Communication & Business Partnering
a. Preparing analytics slides and visual for internal meetings, summarizing key findings from financial and product data
b. Presenting completed analysis to the FP&A supervisor and other departments for review
c. Working with operations, accounting, and sales teams to gather missing information, validate data assumptions and understand business implications.
5. Professional Competency & Judgement
a. Managing weekly deliverable setting priorities and following structured project timeline
b. Participating in progress check ins receiving and applying feedback and documenting completed work for a final internship portfolio.
c. Adhering to confidentiality data accuracy standard and professional communication practices.

Training:

To help the intern achieve the proposed learning outcomes I will:
1. Provide a structured orientation during the intern’s first day covering company overview, FP&A responsibilities, expectations, confidentiality, and required software or data systems
2. Conduct daily check-in meetings 10-15 minutes after the start of each shift to outline priorities, answer questions and provide real-time guidance
3. Hold weekly progress and mentorship meetings (30-45 minutes to review deliverables, evaluate analytical accuracy, discuss challenges, teach new concepts and reinforce professional development)
4. Training the intern on ERP export handling, data cleaning techniques, financial modeling, and catalog analysis using hands-on walkthroughs and supervised practice session during the first three weeks
5. Provide ongoing one-on-one coaching on pricing models, margin logic, product research methodology, cost structure interpretation, and presentation formatting
6. Facilitate cross-department collaboration, introducing the intern to sales, operations, and accounting contacts for data gathering consultations and product research support.
7. Offer structured written feedback on major assignments such as the Master Catalog Database, Activity Report, substitutive Mapping, and Price Alignment Analysis
8. Conduct Final review and exit interview to evaluate the intern’s performance conform mastery of learning outcomes and provide career mentorship

Learning Outcome:

By the end of the internship the student will be able to:
1. Financial Analysis and Modeling
a. Analyze operational and financial data to identify trends, analyze gross margin evaluate SKU-level profitability, and build spread sheet based financial models that support pricing decisions, forecasting, and performance reporting.
2. Data Structuring & business Analytics
a. Clean, structure and integrate large datasets from multiple sources (ERP exports, catalog databases, Business Intelligence exports) to perform consumption analysis, identify item classification (A/B/C), and prepare summary reports that influence decision making.
3. Pricing & Cost Strategy Development
a. Apply financial concepts such as landed cost, markup, discount structure, and competitor benchmarking to develop list price recommendations, evaluate price alignment, and understand the financial impact of pricing changes on revenue and margin.
4. Communication & Business Partnering
a. Translate analytical findings into clear written and verbal insights, prepare presentation ready slide for leadership, and collaborate effectively with cross functional team including sales, operations, and accounting.
5. Professional Competency & Judgement
a. By the end of the internship, the student will be able to demonstrate professional conduct, time management and critical thinking by independently managing tasks, validating data accuracy, escalating risks or discrepancies appropriately, and completing project milestones according to the FP&A workflow.